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Apple’s online service MobileMe just got a major facelift. Offline for a few hours last night it has returned with a new interface for Mail (borrowing heavily from it implementation of this service on the iPad), new navigation features, a new Find My iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch application and more. Details can be found here – MOBILE ME – WHAT’S NEW.

I really like the new Mail interface and hope they eventually bring this approach to the Mac OS desktop version. It responds and respects typical keyboard shortcuts like select-all, delete etc…I have to say that it’s not quite clear what to do when you hit the new page. Logging in takes you to Mail. Gone are the navigation tools/buttons to access each service. Instead, there is a cloud icon in the top left of the page. Clicking on this brings up a process-like pop-up window which offers up the different components – calendar, contacts etc…I’ve been using the beta of Mail for a while so I had figured this out quickly, but I suspect some users won’t know what to do right away. Also, one has to click on this cloud icon every time you want to switch between the different parts. This seems silly as it’s now added an extra mouse click to navigate. The service seems to remember the last component you were using and upon logging in after logging out takes you back to that area – potentially useful, potentially annoying. I’ve also noticed that my contact/calendar sync is totally out of wack on my various machines. The recent changes may be the culprit as the sync service had been very stable since the last major overhaul they made – which caused a major headache back then as well. Each component has gotten a slight make-over – Check out this post from 9to5mac.com for more screenshots. Not everything Apple does is perfect and I’m not sure this is a home run – more just a single at the moment.

Warning – this post is a bit technical – but you can do it!

On the heals of the news concerning a recently begun anti-trust inquiry into the relationship between Apple and Google I thought I would take this opportunity to compare some of the competing services they are both offering and which are being covered in the investigation.

The reason for the inquiry stems from the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 which prohibits the participation on the board of two rival companies when it would reduce competition.
Antitrust experts say the provision against “interlocking directorates,” known as Section 8 of the act, is rarely enforced. Nevertheless, the agency has already notified Google and Apple of its interest in the matter, according to the people briefed on the inquiry, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the inquiry was confidential.

Both companies specialize in offering easy to use (Apple) and fairly easy to use (Google) solutions to their client-base. In the case of Apple it is 10% of the computing public, for Google, it’s the world! Let’s have a look at some of these solutions for individuals and businesses.

The Cloud

I’ve written about the Cloud in previous posts (just search the word ‘cloud’ within this blog). Briefly, the Cloud is a term used to describe a centralized data area, usually located on a remote system over the internet which other computers (desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPods, Blackberries etc…) can access and use to stay in sync with. The data is pushed and pulled to your devices so you can keep your calendars, address books, email, bookmarks and in the case of Apple, passwords, smart mailboxes, notes and other data objects.

The Solutions

Apple’s offering of this service is MobileMe. MobileMe is not just about the Cloud, but it is a major component of it’s feature set. With MobileMe Apple is attempting to offer business-class services and functionality for ‘the rest of us’. It had a rocky start, but it’s running very well now. With a MobileMe account you can enter a new contact on your iPhone and it will appear on you desktop at home (as long as it’s on and online). Enter a calendar event on your home computer and the event appears on your iPod Touch and laptop. Send an email from your iPhone and the message shows up in your Sent mail on your desktop machine (no more CC’ing yourself).

Google recently got into the Cloud computing business with the ability to now sync Google Calendar and Google Contacts using a technology called ActiveSync for iPhone – the same technology behind Microsoft Exchange – as well as with it’s free plugins for the Blackberry – no expensive Blackberry Enterprise Service required. Email sync is not supported at this time, but is provided by enabling and setting up an IMAP version of your GMAIL account on your mobile devices and computers. This requires a bit more knowledge and poking around within your Google account to activate whereas the Apple solution just works after you input your username and password in the corresponding MobileMe system preference.

As just eluded to, Apple tends to meet the technological needs of it’s client-base with an elegant and easy to use appoach. Their online/web versions of their applications – Mail, Calendar and Address Book – look great, work well and fully sync with their desktop counter-parts. Google’s calendar sync supports over-the-air syncing via a mobile setup on your iPhone – but you have to navigate to a website using the Safari browser on your phone. There you have to log in, register your phone, click on the calendars you want to sync and you’re in (oh, and you’re limited to 5 calendars including the default calendar that comes with a GMAIL or Google Premier account). Contact syncing is limited and there is no support for groups (although there is a built-in Google sync plugin with Apple’s address book – but it only appears if you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod with your Mac).

With Apple you launch the MobileMe system preference on your Mac, enter your username and password, turn on syncing, choose what you want to sync and go. Google does support a service called CalDav - an emerging shared calendaring technology supported by Mac OS X Server 10.5. You can download a free application called Collaboration and it will program iCal to sync with your Google calendar. Another program called SpanningSync will sync your address book and calendars for you – but it costs $70. Other utilites exist to help sync calendars and contacts to Google – BusySync and SyncMan come to mind. Again, with Apple and MobileMe no extra software other than a $100/year subscription to the service is required and it will sync all of your important data between all of your devices over the air.

Neither share their address books easily (in the case of Apple not at all without special tools) – not great for collaboration – and Apple doesn’t like to share it’s calendars very nicely. Google trumps Apple on this point – it’s calendars are very easy to share and it does support a Global Address Book with it’s Premier edition ($50US per user per year). Apple finally came though with it’s ability to share documents from it’s iDisk (internet-based hard drive) which is great. Google offers Google Apps – online versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint plus the ability to upload and share documents.

Email sync works beautifully if you use a .me or .mac account. All your mailboxes appear exactly the same way on every machine and mobile device. However, you can’t use a non-Apple address in the ‘from’ field which is no good for businesses who wish to utilize their own domain name. GMAIL allows you to mask your gmail address with your own and Google Premier will host your own domain mail and offers 25GB of space per user plus great spam filtering (no online spam filtering with Apple).

For business and cross-platform (Mac-PC) compatiblity Google is the clear winner and many of services are FREE. For ease of use and seamless integration with your Mac and Apple devices MobileMe is an excellent alternative although as a collaborative business solution it’s not as strong.

I guess in this area the inquiry may come up empty.

In Part 2  I will focus on the image editing offerings from both of these giants: Picasa from Google and iPhoto from Apple.

 

There is a MobileMe phishing scam roaming the net in an attempt to get users to part with their credit card information. Basically, a user receives an email telling them their MobileMe account is about to expire or their credit information needs to be updated:

In another attempt to con MobileMe users into providing their credit card information, a scammer has sent out spam spoofed to appear to come from Apple, which directs users to a fake site designed to look like Apple’s. Users who follow the email link and enter their information on the poorly formatted, fake Apple web page will be sorry.

Please check out Apple Insiders expanded story on this: NEW PHISHING SCAM TARGETS MOBILE ME USERS

So, Apple finally made good on their promise of file sharing via the MobileMe iDisk. What is iDisk? iDisk is Apple’s online internet-based hard drive (or virtual hard drive) that comes with every MobileMe account. In addition to the many features of this service – calendar/address book/email syncing, iLife integration, internet backup (which utilizes the iDisk) etc…Apple promised an easy way to share files, small and large, easily with friends, colleagues or yourself. There are some great data sharing options out there – SugarSync, DropBox, Google Apps, Zimbra – but if you have a MobileMe account why not take advantage of what you’re already paying for?

Enter iDisk Sharing:

We’re pleased to announce that you can now use your MobileMe iDisk to share files with others simply and easily. Instead of attaching a large document to an email and hoping it’s not too big to be received, you can place the file in your iDisk and use the new Share File command in the iDisk web app. It lets you send your friends, family, or colleagues a link they can click to download the file directly. You can password protect the link if you choose to and even set how long it will be available.

Apple has even provided a tutorial movie on their site. To get a file onto your iDisk simply click on the iDisk in the side bar of the Finder and it’s contents will appear. You can use iDisk as you would any other folder – it just happens to reside on the internet and not your local machine – although there is a way to keep or cache a local copy of your iDisk on your computer within the iDisk area of the  MobileMe system preference. You can drag a file of any size to your iDisk, create folders and then follow the directions on the tutorial. I’ve created a short video of how to drag a file to the iDisk from the desktop:

As predicted, Apple has released a 10.5.6 update to it’s current 10.5 (Leopard) client and Server operating system. At the update link provided Apple’s first line of advice is to BACKUP. Please, please, either wait to see how the update is received by the Mac community (click here for 10.5.6 reader reports) or back up your data before applying the update and follow the other advice you’ll find there.

A notable aspect to the update is the addition of real ‘push’ services to Apple’s MobileMe service. When it was first introduced, Apple advertised it as ‘exchange for the rest of us’ wherein contacts, mail and calendar events would update almost immediately on a client’s desktop, laptop and phone. In reality, it was taking almost 15 minutes unless a user manually synced each new change and the company withdrew the claim until it could actually provide the feature. Apple now claims, with the the 10.5.6 update that MobileMe now delivers on that promise.

A phishing scam seems to be making the rounds masquerading as coming from Apple. It claims that Apple cannot renew the customer’s MobileMe subscription for September (which is ridiculous as Apple doesn’t bill for this on a monthly basis). There is more detail with screenshots on Apple Insider’s site here. I highly suggest you check it out. The link directs a user to a bogus link and then asks you to enter your login information. The domain/DNS information was registered 3 weeks ago and points to a source in Pakistan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple just released an iPhone 2.0.2 update (for iPod Touch too). Like any update, I suggest you approach it with caution and back up your Address Book and Calendar. I’ve created a simple guide which can be found through the the HOW TO… category of the blog so check it out. First generation iPhone users (2G) that are unlocked and/or jail-broken should stay away from this update as it will most likely brick your phone!

In other breaking news, I just received an email informing me that Apple is now extending MobileMe accounts an extra 60 days in addition to the 30 days already given – they are feeling the heat. At least they’re listening.

I came across this great article by Jean Louis Gassée about his take on the shaky MobileMe launch and his thoughts about the service in general. He puts the service in the context of Rim, Amazon and Google’s offerings and is a highly recommended read by the man who once had Steve Job’s position at Apple.

Appleinsider posted a couple of interesting articles about the concept of the Cloud and MobileMe in general for anyone interested in the concepts and technology behind what I believe is a great technology. You can find article 1 here and article 2 here. It looks like more articles are forthcoming so keep an eye on the site.

This is followup to yesterday’s post on my own syncing issues with the MobileMe service. I’m happy to report the issue is fixed! Apple actually acknowledged the problem on their Mobile Me Status Page (no. 3). The procedure for resetting the sync on the iPhone is here. Now, if only we could more easily control the colour of the calendars the iPhone/iPod Touch create! – a work-around can be found here. Thanks for the quick response Apple!

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